So Hideo Kojima made the not-surprising, surprise announcement of Metal Gear Solid V today at his GDC panel. If you don't mind, I'm just going to ramble off some thoughts in-regards to the beautiful trailer that was shown.

At the panel, Kojima said that The Phantom and Ground Zeroes together are Metal Gear Solid V. While he didn't totally clarify what he meant by that, I get the feeling from watching the trailer that these two are the same game. Note that pieces of the debut trailer are taken directly from the Ground Zeroes reveal a few months ago and every video we've seen has been running on the same graphics engine. Kojima is notorious for messing with the public, so I expect this two separate reveal thing was just a way of teasing us. So until I hear otherwise, I'm just going to assume that the two are indeed the same game.

This has gotta be on next-gen platforms

I know we've had some extremely visually impressive games this generation, but this just seems too good to be true. Ground Zeroes may have been confirmed to be on current-gen platforms back when it was first revealed (platform information can be found here on IGN: http://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-project/ps3-141058) but I suspect that what we've been seeing is next-gen console footage and those will be the "real" versions so to speak. Similar in the way Battlefield 3's PC version was the definitive version of that game complete with optimized features and presentation.

The game will take the "Uncharted approach" to being cinematic

I got the impression that this game will still be heavily cinematic in MGS fashion, but it's going to be done far more in realtime instead of through endless cutscenes like in the previous installments. For example, the trailer featured a scene involving Big Boss riding on horseback during a storm while firing a shotgun at enemies in what appeared to be a legitimate gameplay shot. Action-packed set pieces like this are becoming the norm so it makes sense that an already cinematic game like MGS would follow suit.

Characters from Peace Walker and MGS: 3 will make appearances

Obviously we saw Miller in the trailer, but don't be surprised if other characters from these games play major roles here. I also have a hunch that the heavily burnt guy is Colonel Volgin. I can't quite put my finger on as to why I feel this way, but after reading other speculation around the net, I'm clearly not alone.

We're going to see the establishment of The Patriots

The trailer seemed to feature the destruction of Big Boss's mother base established in Peace Walker. And with the destruction of his "home", I can picture Boss having to turn to some old friends and comrades for aid. Perhaps his old buddy Zero...

That's all I've got for now folks. If I come up with some more I'll be sure to post it. I'm going to be following this game extremely closely so expect more blogs on the subject of Metal Gear Solid V sometime down the road. Until next time!